Category: Kansai

The Founder Institute, the world’s largest startup accelerator, is proud to announce that it is launching its first Japanese chapter in Kansai. The first ever semester in Kansai begins this Spring and is currently accepting applications. With plans to run two semesters annually, the program aims to launch over 20 meaningful and enduring home-grown technology companies per year in Japan.

In the Founder Institute’s four-month, part-time program, promising startup entrepreneurs “learn by doing” and launch a company through structured training courses, practical business-building assignments, and expert feedback from a large network of business mentors. Plus, aspiring founders are not required to quit their day job to participate, so they can begin building a business around their ideas without putting their livelihood at risk.

Leading the Founder Institute’s efforts in Kansai areIchiro Yasui, Narimasa Makino, and Kenshin Fujiwara. Ichiro Yasui is the Founder and Managing Director of HIG Associates Ltd, which specialized in the strategic management and investment consulting for early stage companies in Japan and beyond. Narimasa Makino is a manager at Sunbridge StartUps LLP, where he invests in IT and service companies. Kenshin Fujiwara is a Venture Partner at Miyako Capital, a university-backed VC fund based in Kyoto, Japan, is a founder of coworking space search engine Coworkify, and a chairman of StartupKyoto.com.

In Kansai, I see three major issues working against startups. First, people don’t know the best practices for building a startup company. Second, there is cultural fear of failure. Third, there is no supporting ecosystem in the city. I believe the Founder Institute can solve all of these problems in Kansai.” – Ichiro Yasui

If you would like to learn more, then please join us for a free, upcoming event:

In only 5 years of operation, over 1,116 graduate companies across 61 cities have used the Founder Institute to validate their idea, develop their plans, refine their product, build an advisory board, prepare for seed funding, and more.

Visiting Grand Front Osaka for the first time. This is the place akin to Shibuya Hikarie, where multipurpose buildings are put together. A difference is the former is consisted of four distinct buildings and located in Osaka, and the latter is actually one 180m tall building and located in Tokyo.

The purpose of both complexes is almost same, but Grand Front puts more focuses on collaboration between academic institutions and businesses. Hence, it hosts satellite offices from nearby universities to accelerate collaboration between them as it can be found here.

Looking forward to seeing more startup activities in this region in the future.